1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for sharing secured data between functions and elements in a communications system, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for determining a validity of secure data and subsequent sharing of the data based on the result of the determination.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communications, and more particularly, wireless communications systems have become increasingly available and affordable to vast sections of the world's population. The success of such wireless communications systems has in turn resulted in a need to accommodate the tremendous growth in the number of subscribers. One method of addressing the need to accommodate the tremendous growth has been to make the wireless communications system scalable. Another method has been to optimize the elements, and functions that make the wireless communications systems. As a result, the architectural framework of communications systems has been constantly evolving.
One such area that has been evolving is an authentication architecture in the wireless communication systems. In the wireless communications systems, a number of applications share a need for mutual authentication between a client/User Equipment (UE) and an application/application server before further communication can take place. Examples include, but are not limited to, a communication between a client and a presence server or a communication with a content server. Because many applications share this common need for a peer authentication mechanism, a Generic Authentication Architecture (GAA) has been developed.
Initial authentication (i.e., bootstrapping) of Third Generation Project Partnership (3GPP) Generic Authentication Architecture (GAA) is based on AKA (Authentication and Key Agreement Protocol). The GAA architecture is described in a document produced by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The document reference is, 3GPP TS 33.919: “3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; 3G security; Generic Authentication Architecture (GAA); System description,” attached hereto as Appendix A, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
One of the salient aspects of the GAA, is that includes an application independent mechanism that provides a client/UE and an application/application server with a common shared secret. This shared secret can subsequently be used to authenticate the wireless communication between the client/UE and the application/application server. This aspect is described in a document produced by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and the document reference is, “3GPP TS 33.220: 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; 3G security; Generic Authentication Architecture (GAA); Generic bootstrapping architecture (Release 7),” attached hereto as Appendix B, and “3GPP TS 29.109: 3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Core Networks and Terminals; Generic Authentication Architecture (GAA); Zh and Zn Interfaces based on the Diameter protocol; Stage 3 (Release 7),” attached hereto as Appendix C, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.